Sewing-machine attachment.



C. WEISS.

SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT.

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 11, HHS.

1,259,324. Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

Mi I T T I j: H T" 11 I IS INVENTOR HIS A TTOB/VEY CORNELIUS WEISS OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

' SEWING-MACHINE ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 12, 1918.

Application filed October 11, 1915. Serial No. 55,150.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CORNELIUS WEISS, a citizen of the United States, residing in Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-Machine .-\ttachments, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in attachments for sewing machines designed to feed material to the needle so that there will be formed in the material spiral threads either elliptical or of any other noncircular form.

In sewing such classes of articles as pads and hat crowns of non-circular outline, it is desirable to form the line of stitching parallel to the outlining edge of the work and to cover the entire sewed area uniformly with equally spaced stitches. This has been attained mechanically where the stitches are circularly arranged in a continuous spiral but 'any variation from this circular form has had to be performed by guiding the material manually to the sewing needle.

One of the objects of m invention is to provide a simple form 0 attachment for use with the conventional form of sewing machine, designed to feed the work automatically to the needle in such a manner that the needle will cause the formation of spiral threads of any desired shape in plan.

The embodiment of the invention herein disclosed is particularly designed for forming substantially closed elliptical spirals on a pad such as an elliptical hat crown used on sailors hats, but it is understood that the spirals may be rounded cornered rectilinear, triangular or in fact any character of closed fi ure.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying my invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of my invention installed on a sewing machine; and

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 1 with certain parts shown in vertical section.

In the following description and in the claims, parts will be identified by specific names for convenience of. expression but they are intended to be as generic in their application to similar parts as the art will permlt.

There are shown in the drawing portions of a conventional type of sewing machine including a work table 3, driving shaft 4, operatively connected by mechanism not shown to drive a sewing needle 5. The attachment includes a longitudinally extending track 6 slidably mounted upon which is a carriage 7 including a transversely extending bar 8 to opposite ends of which are attached the forwardly extending arms of a horizontally disposed U-bar 9. This bar extends over the work table and is designed to be actuated by a slow feeding device 10. Thi feeding device includes a feed screw 11 designed to be operatively connected to the U-bar 9, by means of a clutch 12 driven from the main shaft 4 of the machine through the shaft and gear connection 13, all as is more particularly described in my co-pending application Serial No. 55,149, October 11, 1915 filed under even date.

The carriage includes a longitudinally extending slotted plate 14 positioned centrally between the arms of the U-bar. A floating plate 15 is sildably mounted on the plate 14 and fixed thereto by means of a pair of longitudinally spaced set screws 16 extending through the slot and into the underside of the floating plate. A work carrier 17 in the form of an elliptical plate is provided with a bearing hub 18 depending centrally thereof and rotatably mounted upon a shaft 19 which extends upwardly from the plate 15. One end 20 of the plate 15 is raised to provide a support for one side of the work carrier plate. A holding plate 21 is positioned on top of the work W which is clamped be tween this plate and the carrier 17. The work and holding plate are demountably held in position by the binding nut 22 threaded on to the upper end of the shaft 19 and designed to bear on the holding plate to force the work into tight frictional engagement with the carrier. A stud 23 projects upwardly from the carriage adjacent the end of the plate opposite the bearing end 20. This stud is provided with a roller 24 mounted in a groove 25 formed on the underside of the material supporting plate 17. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, this groove is shown elliptical in plan and is formed by a centrally disposed elliptical plate 26, indicated by the inner dotted ellipse shown in Fig. 1, and a similar shaped band 27 indicated by the two outer dotted ellipses shown in Fig. 1, spaced there from a distance to provide the groove of a width to snugly lit the roller positioned therein. I

In operation, the device is assembled on the machine with a type of work support of a size suflicient to engage the work centrally over the greatest possible area while permitting these parts which are to be sewed to extend beyond the edge of the support and with the support provided with the type of guiding groove which is desired to be reproduced in the stitching on the work. The work is positioned symmetrically on the support 17 the plate 21 positioned thereon and the work clamped in position by means of the set screw 22. A feed screw 11 having the desired rate of feed is positioned in the feed mechanism and the machine started with the needle at either the inner or outer edge of the space to be sewed depending upon the direction of feed of the feeding mechanism.

The usual feeding action of the needle will act upon the work to rotate the support 17 about its axis of rotation centrally of the pivoted shaft 19. The rotation of the sup: port will cause the plate to feed the material to the needle in a direction depending partly upon the character of the groove on the underside of the support, due to the en- .gagement of the groove with the upstand- 111g relatively fixed stud 23. As the stud is fixed relatively and the groove revolving, the axis of rotation of the support will reciprocate in a line at right angles to the direction of feed of the needle. While the work is being fed with this general rotary movement, the feed screw 11 is actin upon the carriage to advance the same bo ily in one direction and with it to move the axis of rotation of the work unilaterally so that the work possesses a general rotary movement in one plane and a transverse movement causing the threads to take a general spiral form. At the same time, the groove and fixed stud connection will cause this spiral to take a form non-circular in plan and in the instance illustrated to take a flattened circle of elliptical form.

A device of this character possesses all of the advantages, such as ease of action and steadiness of feedcharacterizin the device-in my copending application 0 even date and the additional weight of the material carrying parts acts to increase the steady uniform unilateral feed to or from the needle. A device, such as described has been used to sew a pad of non-circular shape such as the crown of a sailors hat with the I thread uniformly spaced and following any symmetrical form such as the elliptical outlines resulting in providing an evenly sewed body of material and with all portions thereof uniformly covered with the sewing stitches, thus materially enhancing the appearance of such articles.

It is obvious that by means of a device of this character, spiral stitches of any design may be formed in the work provided the proper kind of groove may be formed on the bottom of the material supporting plate. The particular device described is simple n construction, the parts may be readily demounted for cleaning or substitution, the entire device is small and lies flat on the work table and after the work is mounted the entire operation may be automatic without requirmg the attention of the operator until it is necessary to insert another piece of work in place.

While I have shown and described, and have pointed out in the annexed claims, certain novel features of my invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, the combination with a sewing needle, of a work support mounted for rotary movement about an axis of rotation, means acting on the support for advancing the same bodily in one direction relative to the needle and means acting on the support for causing said axis of rotation to reciprocate relative to the needle whereby the axis of rotation of the sup port will be reciprocated at the same time that it is being advanced.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination of a work support mounted for revolutionary movement and means for advancing the work carried by the support past the needle over a path to cause the needle to sew the work in elliptical spiral lines with one aXis of the elliptical lines of materially greater length than the other axis.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination of a sewing needle, a work support mounted to revolve about an axis, means for advancing the support bodily in one direction and means for causing a relative reciprocatory movement between the sewing needle and said axis.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination of a work support, means for causing said support to travel about an axis of rotation, means for causing said axis of rotation to reciprocate back and forth over a straight line and constantly acting means for advancing the center of reciprocation of said axis. 1

5. In a device of the class described, the combination of a carriage with a uniform motion, means for advancing said carriage in one direction, a plate slidably mounted on said carriage for reciprocatory movement parallel to the line of feed of the carriage, a work supporting member pivotally mounted for rotary movement on said plate,

said member provided with an endless groove on one face thereof, a projection fixed to the carriage and engaging said groove thereby to cause a shifting of said member as it is rotated and means for disconnecting said carriage from said advancing means thereby to permit the returning of said carriage into its initial position.

6. In a device of the class described, the combination of a carriage, means constantly acting on said carriage for advancing the same at a predetermined rate in one direction, a plate slidably mounted on said carriage for reciprocatory movement parallel to the line of advance of the carriage, a work supporting member pivotally mounted for rotary movement on said plate, said member provided with an endless groove on one face thereof, a projection fixed to the carriage and engaging said groove thereby to cause a shifting of said member as it is rotated and advanced by said first named means.

7. In a deviceof the class described, the combination of a support, a stud fixed to and projecting upwardly from said support,

a plate slidably mounted on said support and provided with an upwardly extending extension at the side thereof opposite the stud, a work supporting plate pivotally mounted on said sliding plate and also supported by said stud and extension, said work supporting plate provided with a groove on its underside engaging said projecting stud and means for rotating said work supporting plate.

8. In a device of the class described, the combination with a sewing needle and driving mechanism therefor, a work supporting plate having an elliptical groove on the underside thereof, a fixed stud for engaging in said groove, a shiftable support for pivotally mounting said plate, said support operatively connected to the needle driving mechanism, whereby as the feed of the needle acts on the material carried by the plate to rotate the same, the groove and stud connection with the plate will cause the plate to feed the material to the needle over an elliptical spiral path.

9. In a device for forming a spiral stitching, the combination with a needle, of a work supporting plate having an elliptical groove on the underside thereof, a fixed stud for engaging in said groove, a shiftable support for pivotally mounting said plate,

whereby as the needle acts on the material carried by the-plate to rotate the same, the grooye and stud connection with the plate will cause the plate to feed the material to the needle over an elliptical spiral path and means constantly acting on said shiftable support tocause the same'to advance bodily in one direction while partaking of the shifting motion due to the groove and stud connection.

Signed atNew York city in the county of Kings and State of New York this 8" day of October, A. D., 1915.

CORNELIUS WEISS. 

